Reality
by Qwi-Xux
Summary: Running a country wasn't always easy, but they did it together. Even if they ended up with burns and knife marks on their bedroom walls. Mai/Zuko, one-shot


**A/N: This is not a new story. **Once upon a time, I had a series of some Avatar one-shots posted in one file as part of a prompt set for a community on LiveJournal. I dropped my prompt claim, so I removed it from my fanfiction account. However, I have some one-shots that I'd like to keep on my account, so I'm just going to post a few of them as standalones and not as part of a prompt set.

**Disclaimer: **Avatar: TLA is not mine.

**Originally written January 2010. ****  
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Zuko had discovered that living in a brand new era of peace was almost as exhausting as living in a time of war. Peace had to be established; trust had to be rebuilt. There were pockets of mercenaries who opposed the Four Nations Treaty and were still happier with their "enemies" dead. Sometimes it was rebels from the Earth Kingdom who tried to attack Fire Nation diplomats or visitors. Sometimes it was a group of Fire Nation rebels who opposed Zuko being the Firelord and still thought the world should follow them.

Most people, Zuko had found, were welcoming the peace and getting the chance to live it. He, on the other hand, was the Firelord, and not a day went by when he didn't have something to do, someone to see, or some dispute to work out. There were projects to be decided upon and approved, stacks of papers to be signed, people demanding every bit of time and attention he had and then some.

He didn't know what he would have done without Mai. She had far more patience with navigating through the stormy seas of bureaucracy. She set up a committee to review and handle as many of the finer details of projects, paperwork, and anything else on Zuko's daily load as they could. Only the things they couldn't work out came to Zuko.

Mai put herself in between Zuko and some very angry or demanding people, but he never learned about it until _after _the fact. She put her foot down with advisors or ministers if things got out of control. The one time he was horribly sick and trying to get to an important diplomatic meeting with a cough, fever, and (he later realized) in his pajamas, she had been the one to threaten to pin him to the bed with her daggers if he even thought about setting foot outside their quarters. She had spent the rest of the day juggling questions and refusing to let anyone near him. He suspected she may have drugged his tea with an herb to make him sleep (and to keep him from finding a way to escape), but he never asked and she never said.

As the new Fire Lady, Mai had to earn the respect of the people as much as Zuko did as the new Firelord. In the past, the Fire Lady had always been more of an icon than a political figurehead, but that was something that was changing, because Zuko couldn't handle this alone. They were forging this new road together, and maybe it had shocked some of his advisors at first when he would consult with Mai on important issues, but they had learned to bite their tongues when it came to the Firelord's young wife. So together they were watched, scrutinized, pulled apart, and put back together again.

It could have torn them apart, if they had let it, but they hadn't come through war, prison, and brushes with death to let politics ruin them. They stood firm and they did it together, and if their bedroom had some scorch marks and knife holes on the walls because the Firelord and Lady had occasionally taken out their frustrations, arguments, and passions in the one space they had to themselves, then it was between them.

The one time he tried to talk about what might have happened under different circumstances ("What if you hadn't saved me at the Boiling Rock? What if I had never been banished? What if-"), Mai groaned and threw her pillow over his face.

"I'm trying to _sleep_, Zuko! _This _is reality. If you really want to torture yourself, why don't you start wondering what the Earth Kingdom generals are going to ask you for in the meeting tomorrow?"

And he smiled a little to himself and shoved the pillow back onto her. Because as strong and independent as she was, and as far as Zuko had once had to go by himself, he wouldn't have wanted to do this without her, and he knew she felt the same way. She kept him firmly grounded, and he helped show her that it was okay to let go sometimes. He hoped, when they reached the end of their lives, that he could know he had given half the strength to Mai that she had given to him.

He didn't say it, though, because he knew Mai would tell him that he should be thinking about the papers he had to deal with after his meeting with the generals (his hand hurt just thinking about it) and ask him if he had prepared his speech for the Earth King's celebration yet (he hadn't).

Zuko slipped an arm under Mai and dragged her close to him. She sighed and muttered something about waking her up _again_, but he saw the smile that flickered across her face before she buried it in his shoulder. His gaze went from a knife hole on the wall down to Mai. "Mai."

"_Zuko_."

"I like you."

She cracked open an eye and gave him a look that told him how very idiotic she thought he was before she closed it again. After several moments, she said, "I like you, too. Now will you _please _let me sleep?"

"Just-"

"I have knives."

"Was that a challenge? Ow! Stop poking-okay, okay! Good night!"

"Honestly, Zuko, you are so weird sometimes."


End file.
